GMST 106. Skandal!

In this class, we will be reading a series of plays that touch on social, moral, religious, and aesthetic taboos and by doing so created a public outcry that found its first expression in the theater scandals of the plays' premieres. Audiences express their displeasure and outrage through varying disrupting practices, including physical altercations with actors and other audience members. The ensuing newspaper controversies and political debates often led to censorship and performance bans.
Our discussions of the plays will focus on the socio-historical context of the scandals they provoked, as well as on the plays' literary and aesthetic merits (from naturalism to post-modernism). Other questions raised are: what "outrages" are continuing to provoke theater scandals today and what are our own limits that art (theater) may not transgress. Readings include: Vor Sonnenaufgang (Before Dawn), Gerhard Hauptmann (1889; 1889), Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening), Franz Wedekind (1891; 1906), Reigen (La Ronde), Arthur Schnitzler (1897; 1920), Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods), Ödön von Horváth (1931; 1931), Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy; also The Representative), Rolf Hochhuth (1963; 1963), Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience), Peter Handke (1966;1966), Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the City, and Death), Rainer Maria Fassbinder (1975; 1979 -amateur performance - 1985), Burgtheater. Posse mit Gesang (Burg Theater. Farce with Songs), Elfriede Jelinek (1985; 1985), Heldenplatz (Heroes Square), Thomas Bernhard (1988; 1988).
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literatures: German Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.ed/german-studies

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